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Monday, May 11, 2009

This is not unexpected, coming from Dick Cheney (relative to his public persona and his reputation to many). News articles and blog sites that allow comments regarding this story are equally - if not moreso - hilarious. The anti-Cheney, anti-Rush Limbaugh crowd tend to demonize both men. Meanwhile, Cheney's supporters sound like stereotypical "conservative" talk radio, just like Limbaugh. All I can say about various commenters and writers, including yours truly, are just culturally (?) or environmentally (?) wired believe their point of view is the correct one.

If Cheney thinks Limbaugh better represents the Republican party than Colin Powell, and if that is true, we'll see what happens to the current major opposition party. Additionally, while Cheney says there's room in the GOP for moderates, he doesn't want the party to shift to the left. In other words, assuming that Cheney's assumed GOP base is more like Limbaugh, the party is deep in the right - socially and fiscally. Therefore, Cheney doesn't want too many moderates in the GOP, as that would shift the base to the "left."

I'd like to think that most voting Americans, whether Democrat, Republican, or other party affiliation, are nuanced - a mix of issue stances to the right, the left, the middle, and some issues undecided (or constantly shifting). If that is the case, then a hard-right Republican Party full of Cheney politicians and Limbaugh voters might not succeed in the free (voter) marketplace (pardon the ironic metaphor). However, I shudder to think that the majority of Americans have a totalitarian bent to their ideological beliefs, whether to the left or to the right.

Besides, General Powell, politically, strikes me as more-or-less fiscally conservative but socially moderate (rather, nuanced for various social issues). If that makes Powell (as some commenters may say) a Republican in Name Only (RINO), then the RINO party sounds like a good opposition party to the majority in Congress and the Obama Administration. Ideally, in my opinion, the Democrats should be more-or-less fiscally moderate but socially liberal. Of course, some might say that would make them the DINO party.

If I remember correctly, a commenter named "Dave" on a Christian Science Monitor article covering the Cheney/Limbaugh/Powell topic said that we might as well have the RINO Party with a rhinoceros mascot and the DINO Party with a dinosaur mascot (I say it should be a donkey-like velociraptor). On the one hand, the fringe extreme right and left would be marginalized (hooray for puns). On the other hand, debates between fiscal conservatives and fiscal moderates, as well as between social moderates and social liberals, would be more civilized than today's ad hominem flame wars.